Ashburton Council Gets Stockwater Exit Work Underway

Thursday, 30 January 2025, 10:03 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Ashburton District Council's exit of stockwater services starts in Methven.

Over 200 letters have been sent to property owners paying stockwater rates for the Methven Auxiliary portion of the district network to survey who needs stockwater and who doesn’t.

Ashburton District Council’s infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said the intake-by-intake exit plan is a “fairly complicated programme of work”.

“We want to help property owners through it as much as we can.

The first survey is for those who pay for and use the stockwater while the second survey goes to those with an interest in the stockwater races fed by the Methven Auxiliary Intake.

“Interested parties or groups could, for example, include people who live along Thyme Stream and while they don’t pay stockwater rates they may want to give us feedback on the stream running through their subdivision.

“We are also open to hearing from organised groups with a solid plan to take over a particular intake.”
The information collected in the surveys is confidential.

After the survey closes, council’s consultant John Wright will follow up with the stockwater users who may need to find alternative sources, McCann said.

When issuing the first survey was raised at the council’s activity briefing meeting on Tuesday, chief executive Hamish Riach took a moment to reaffirm the council is exiting stockwater delivery, not closing stockwater.

The council plan involves considering the future of 17 intakes, including whether they can be closed or operated by others.

It starts with the Methven Auxiliary Intake and the next intake on the list is Bushside, with the plan aiming to work through all the intakes and have the council exit stockwater by the end of June 2027.

As the work progresses, affected property owners and stakeholders will be contacted but property owners could still request race closures in their own area, and that work continues alongside the intake work, McCann said.

The Stockwater Transition Working Group will meet again on March 6 to discuss the initial progress.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.